Italian pianist Ilario Ferrari loves working with strings and together with his personal group. To launch his newest album, Be Your self, he brings a string quartet and a piano trio to the stage of Kings Place. Interview by Rob Adams.

Inspiration can strike Ilario Ferrari at any time. The Italian-born, UK-based pianist, singer and composer, who launches his newest album, Be Your self, at Kings Place on Thursday 1 June, has been recognized to hurry from the kitchen to the piano whereas getting ready dinner to seize and broaden on an thought because it springs to thoughts.

Equally, Ferrari is perhaps strolling his canine, Flash, when a melody happens to him and he then heads residence shortly to jot it down.

Be Your self’s coming collectively concerned elevated frequency of the latter state of affairs. Written for piano and string quartet, the recording options Ferrari with the Ondanueve String Quartet from Naples. Nevertheless, for the Kings Place live performance, Ferrari is rearranging the music for his trio with double bassist Charlie Pyne and drummer Katie Patterson and the Soli String Quartet.

Strings and string gamers have been an curiosity of Ferrari’s since his earliest days in music.

“A string quartet is a really versatile ensemble that enables for the exploration of wealthy harmonies, all kinds of grooves, dynamics and lyrical melodies,” he says. “It’s no surprise that composers all through historical past have been compelled to jot down string quartets and in my very own compositions, I’ve sought to create music that pays homage to the custom of European chamber music whereas additionally totally embracing jazz improvisation, grooves, and the interaction between strings and piano.”

For Ferrari, working with a longtime string quartet, relatively than assembling particular person gamers for the album, has been essential.

“Each Ondanueve and Soli Strings usually are not solely gifted particular person musicians but in addition shut buddies who frequently carry out collectively,” he says. “They carry their very own distinctive kinds to the desk and possess a definite sound as a quartet, which I completely love.”

As a part of the compositional course of Ferrari likes to ascertain the musicians who can be enjoying the music. So, for the album he included the musicians’ names within the rating to maintain their photographs in entrance of him.

“I assumed loads in regards to the Ondanueve’s playfulness and Mediterranean heat,” he says, including that for the Kings Place live performance he’s rearranging the work to focus on the distinctive colors and expertise of Soli Strings.

Ferrari was born in Terracina, in Southern Italy, and was fascinated about music from an early age. Though his grandfather was a reputed songwriter, Ferrari by no means met him and says he grew up in a “non-musical” household. His formal music training started as teenager, finding out guitar whereas educating himself piano and composition.

After finishing medical engineering research, he attended the Licino Refice Conservatory in Frosinone, gaining a First Class Honours Diploma in Jazz Piano in 2015. He then gained an EU scholarship known as Working With Music and moved to London to work as pianist and composer at Quadra Recording Studio for seven months.

Right here he organized for a wide range of ensembles together with string gamers from the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 2016, he launched Unfold, an album of authentic pop-funk songs. He additionally labored with Cuban violinist Omar Puente’s quintet, the Letchworth Sinfonia, the London Homosexual Large Band and Freestyle Orchestra.

He fashioned his trio with Charlie Pyne and Katie Patterson in 2021, aiming to strike a steadiness between modern jazz, classically oriented compositions, rhythms from the favored Mediterranean custom, and Oriental influences. Their debut album, Childhood Recollections has had radio performs worldwide, in addition to on Jazz FM, Jazz London Radio and One London Radio within the UK, and was nominated as among the finest releases of 2021 by Jazzist Journal. The trio has gone on to headline on the Watford Jazz Junction pageant in 2022 and featured with the Nationwide Youth Jazz Orchestra within the premiere of a bit for jazz trio and orchestra that Ferrari composed specifically for the event.  

Be Your self is impressed by a mantra that has impressed Ferrari throughout his time within the UK. It options two suites, one primarily based on a classical rondo, freely interpreted and incorporating the sounds and rhythms of Ferrari’s south Italian heritage, the opposite impressed by his go to to India and his relationship together with his Indian associate.

“Everybody attending the album launch can be in several phases of their lives,” he says. “Subsequently, the mantra of ‘Be Your self’ that I purpose to convey by the music will resonate with every individual in a novel means. My hope is that everybody leaves with elevated braveness and inspiration to take a step in the direction of their genuine self-expression, to dwell genuinely and harmoniously with these round them and the pure world. I’m truthfully nonetheless discovering how this music touches the hearts of individuals, and that’s really a phenomenal factor.”

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LINK: Bookings for Kings Place on 1 June